Community Design Crit - April 10, Inclusive Combination Locks

[Antranig Basman]

I wondered how it worked, and appears to be a form of "mechanical hash 
function" -
https://toool.nl/images/e/e5/The_New_Master_Lock_Combination_Padlock_V2.0.pdf

"The number of combinations is unlimited, but the number of 
mechanically-possible states is markedly finite: 7,501 to be exact. mh 
likens this to the mechanical version of a hash function. I can't think 
of a more concise allegory for it."

On 09/04/2018 16:51, Tony Atkins wrote:
> Hi, All:
> 
> Very interesting topic.  I chatted with Jonathan about this, but wanted 
> to share with the group, I bought one of these a few years ago just 
> because I was so excited that something like it was available for a few 
> dollars at a non-specialty store:
> 
> https://www.masterlock.com/personal-use/product/1500iD
> 
> You enter a combination of motions along the cardinal points to unlock 
> it.  It's indexed so that you can only push along the cardinal 
> directions and there's a good "click" when you have pushed the stick far 
> enough.  All you need to feel is which way is up, which is pretty 
> obvious as the metal of the lock is always "up" and feels different than 
> the body.  I've unlocked it in the dark and one handed, it's a good design.
> 
> Anyway,  sadly the timing never works out for me to attend the design 
> crits, but I hope to see the slides at least as I am really interested 
> in the topic.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> 
> Tony
>